Some more turf for the girls

Today I had arranged to see Jackie and she had told me that there were some turfs which had been dug out of the allotment and were going begging, so we went to collect them for our girls.

I filled her in with the latest details about Sparkle and said she could come and see her for herself. I gave Sparkle her final day of her medicine this morning on some fish in the cat box. Once she had her medicine I offered her some more fish and some mash but she wasn’t interested so I returned her to the run.

I said to Jackie that a stranger would think Sparkle looks okay. She has a red comb and she will join in with her favourite things, corn, sunflower hearts and spinach. But I know that she is far from right.

She is very slow and since I first noticed she wasn’t well ten days ago, she hasn’t had a dust bath and she hasn’t eaten any pellets or in fact much of anything during the day. She spends her days sitting in a patch of sun if there is some and if there isn’t she sits on a perch and often doses.

I showed Jackie that I could throw out chopped grapes and even though I throw bits directly under her beak she is too slow to pick them up. Everything she does looks half hearted and she soon loses interest.

We put some turfs in and once again she did join in but not with her usual enthusiasm and she soon lost interest and went to a perch.

Sparkle joins in with the turf

The girls love to have some grass

It’s good to see Sparkle joining in

Sparkle returns to a perch

It seems as if it quickly becomes too much effort and Sparkle perches up again. Most days she will stay like this all afternoon.

Jackie said that she could see exactly what I meant and that although Sparkle didn’t look too bad she was clearly not at all her usual self. I said that I felt it’s beginning to sound as if I am being negative but it’s just that after ten days of her medicine I had hoped for her to be getting back to normal.

She is certainly not as bad as she was but she is no where near normal either. I wonder if it’s just going to be a slow process for her to get back to normal. Now that she has finished her medicine I feel that there is nothing else I can do but wait and see how it goes. I can encourage her to eat but I can’t force her.

I feel as if she is just eating enough to survive and no more which is not good for a chicken who usually spends the best part of the day looking for food. I think that only time will tell.